Novy Port (Russia)

Novy Port is one of the largest oil and gas condensate fields being developed in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region. It is located on the Yamal Peninsula, 250 km north of Nadym and 30 km off the coast of the Gulf of Ob. A new grade of crude called Novy Port is produced at the field.

The field is located away from the existing pipeline infrastructure. Therefore, shipping by sea through the Arctic Gate offshore oil terminal built near Cape Kamenny in the Gulf of Ob in the Kara Sea was selected as the optimal solution for transporting oil from the field. The terminal launch ceremony, held on 25 May 2016, was attended by Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation.

The Gulf of Ob contains many shoals, has areas with a relatively shallow depth (less than 10 metres), and is covered with ice from October to July. The difficult navigation conditions in the Gulf require that the highest standards of navigational safety are maintained. For these reasons, the project transportation support was entrusted to Sovcomflot, which has unique experience of operations in difficult ice conditions of the Arctic seas.

Participation in the development of the Novy Port oil and gas condensate field operated by Gazprom Neft is a priority project for SCF Group. Since 2016, the Company has three 41,500-dwt MR Arctic shuttle tankers, Shturman Albanov, Shturman Malygin and Shturman Ovtsyn, transporting crude oil from the Novy Port gas condensate field to Murmansk year-round. These vessels can operate in the Arctic seas year-round at temperatures down to minus 45 degrees Centigrade, and their draft enables them to manoeuvre freely in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Ob. The high performance of these tankers under extreme Arctic conditions and the further growth of Novy Port project have enabled to add one more vessel to the series, Mikhail Lazarev, which was delivered to SCF in 2019.

SCF tankers are the largest vessels in this part of the extreme North. In August 2014, product tankers with a high ice class 1A, the SCF Yenisei and SCF Pechora of 47,000 tonnes dwt each, were engaged in the transportation of oil from the Novoportovskoye field. Two years before the start of the Novoportovskoye project, the tanker SCF Neva (the same series as the SCF Yenisei and SCF Pechora) operated in the Gulf of Ob under a contract with OAO Lukoil.

Tankers shipping oil from the Gulf of Ob pass through part of the Northern Sea Route. Specialists from SCF are continuing research into the characteristics of this seaway, and are preparing ships and training crew members to meet the challenges of participating in new projects on the Yamal peninsula.